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♪ ht when the east coast is getting battered by hurricane sandy. we have learned that the water level is lower marginman in battery mark is at 13 feet. the nyu hospital is being evacuated, and there are many fires in the area, and the warning to new york city residents is stay inside until this passes. this is projection that the hurricane is going to pass over and made towards the great lakes. we want to talk to somebody from

wisconsin, and the projection from the associated press is the waves could get as high as 33 feet, but that's not until tomorrow. it is also not escaping the storm's political fallout. mitt romney and paul ryan canceled events scheduled in wisconsin today and tomorrow. president obama's campaign event that was scheduled for tomorrow in green bay is also on hold in the badger state. and it's ten electoral votes are critical to mitt romney's hope to unseat president obama especially if president obama takes ohio. so we'll continue our tour of these swing states that are crucial to this election and turn to kristin crowl. she is joining us from madison, wisconsin. kristin welcome back inside "the

war room." >> thank you so much for having me, governor. >> jennifer: you bet. when we last talked to you, you were in the throws of battling this scott brown recall stuff. how is early voting doing? and do we have any idea who has the edge of that in wisconsin? >> we have been very pleased with the way that early vote is shaping up. we have had lines every day in our democratic base areas across the state, we have had rallies and events and we feel like we have the edge in early vote it started a week ago and we have seen lines ever since. so we're very excited. >> jennifer: wisconsin's early voting ends the friday before the election instead through the weekend, how does that affect your efforts to get out

the vote? >> we know on saturday mornings we'll have thousands of volunteers out pounding the pavement and communicating with voters to get that vote out on tuesday. there is a final push at the end of the week to get every early vote cast come friday. and i don't think it has a big impact as far as we're concerned with our strategy. >> jennifer: was this a recent legislative change that they would cancel out the early voting the weekend before the election. >> yes, and i don't think it is a coincidence. in '08, the president had a 3-point margin and i think this was done to keep us from the

polls. >> jennifer: the latest ares mu son poll has them tied at 4 #%. -- 49%? was it paul ryan? >> i think when he entered the raisin initially, it gave a bump, but now i don't think it is at all. if you go back to 2000 and 2004 the races have been very close. historically this is what it is like. it comes down to the ground game and mobilizing every vote. >> jennifer: you have to be exhausted after all of these elections. we're obviously keeping a close eye on the senate race. thomas is leading 48 to 47

although that has been flipping back and forth. so how much at attention is that senate race -- the federal getting from the progressive field operatives? >> well it's huge. electing tammy baldwin to the senate is a huge priority. we have been educating voters about tammy baldwin's consistent record, and really shedding light on the person that tommy thompson has become since he left wisconsin, went to washington, and went to make millions profiting off of his lobbying career. so we're doing everything we can, and i believe on november 6th we'll have the first woman u.s. senator here in

the state of wisconsin. >> jennifer: do you have results to see whether republicans or democrats have taken advantage of early voting? >> we are not able to track that way, but we are able to get a list of people that have early voted, and look at our records and the voters that we're targeting and look voter to voter who is voting. >> jennifer: so what have you learned? >> we feel very confident of where we're at. where we need our democratic base to turn out in early vote, they are doing absolutely that. >> jennifer: you are not giving me any firm numbers, but you are feeling good is what you're telling me? >> yeah, wisconsin is a little bit different of gauging the actual percent because of all of

the different municipalities. some of the county clerks run the polling out of their homes. but our base needs to bring this home. and we feel very good. >> jennifer: all right. we are counting on you guys. don't disappoint the rest of the country. no pressure or anything. >> thank you very much governor. >> jennifer: you bet you. up next, the very latest on hurricane sandy. this is "the war room." we will be right back. >>"if you ever raise taxes on >>the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true!

>> jennifer: paul ryan was supposed to be campaigning in florida today, but he canceled his appearance because of hurricane sandy. the latest real clear politics poll average has mitt romney beating president obama in florida 49 to 46.6%. in palm beach county the same county that caused people to accidentally vote for pat buchanan. we have reports that election officials there actually screwed up again. i'm joined by chris lahan who was the spokesman for vice president gore's 2000 campaign. thanks for coming inside "the war room." >> thanks for having me. >> jennifer: so if they are messing up on the ballots, i'm

sure it must be so embarrassing. >> yeah. in my view the election was effectively stolen, and now you are 12 years later in the exact same place having questions again. there are a large number of them who are jewish americans. some of them have been survivors of the holocaust, who tried to vote for al gore and then they couldn't have their votes put back to how they originally intended. so to be back in the same situation is a pretty good development. >> jennifer: absolutely. we were talking earlier in the show about the issue of legitimacy, and if the president ends up winning the electoral college vote but losing the popular vote as we saw in 2000

do you think that that ends up really hurting a second-term agenda. would the republicans go more than the democrats did? >> i do think in that type of scenario, you would have that type of situation where the republicans are going to look for every single excuse that they can to create dysfunction and paralysis in the government. the head of the republican party in the senate said his top priority was to make this president a one-term president. not to get people back to work or protect the security of the country, that was his number one priority. in the past elections would happen and then people would focus on government. >> jennifer: i totally agree with you, i worry about this.

why we say those people in blue states or democrats in red states, you have got to vote. chris you are an expert in crisis communications, so we are in the middle of a big crisis of course on the east coast which is hurricane sandy. talk if you will -- separate from politics. you are advising a leader -- a president who is in the middle of a crisis -- what is that like? what is that communication strategy? >> at the end of the day this is one of those situations that good policy is going to translate into good politics right? the number one rule is do your job and do it well and the problems will take care of themselves. theme perceived of trying to exploit this for political purposes as opposed to just doing their job.

>> jennifer: that's true with the challenger. if they are perceived as exploiting a situation. like remember when mitt romney seemed to jump in on the libya thing before -- while we were in the middle of the crisis and didn't know, that was to his disadvantage. so he has to walk a fine line does he not? >> absolutely. look at the end of the day, he has to be very careful. this election is so close. the smallest thing that you do that is perceived as being political, can have a real impact. what you want to do is play mistake-free ball for the next seven days. >> jennifer: you are advising mitt romney -- put on your mitt romney "war room" hat -- for the president it is easier bah he has this job and he musz make sure fema is working, and he can

be in front of the camera. for mitt romney his only job has been to get elected, so what does he do? >> i think the middle ground and sweet spot for romney is to be exceptionally sensitive to how things are going. but if people seem to be handling it as being marriage, even as the cleanup is taking place on the other side you can get back -- >> >> jennifer: but does it come at a worst time for him? >> clearly it freezes the campaign. that helps the president. secondly it gives the president a chance to demonstrate leadership and confidence. and then it usually translates to the benefit of the incumbent.

people go back to what they know. this is a natural disaster. it requires government to be there to provide support and provide emergency services. one of the interesting things in this campaign has been the impact of government. i think at some level, the impact in how people view the role of government -- >> jennifer: and don't you think the sound bite that mitt romney said fema should be returned to the states or private sector. that's a crazy notion, and when you compare with people that are in trouble, and of course people are going to expect the government to be there at these kind of times.

>> exactly. privatizing people at some level -- >> jennifer: yeah, it's just crazy. chris stay right here, because we're going to come back with chris lahain. we'll have much more on hurricane sandy this is "the war room." it's only on current tv. >>the bottom line is we need an amendment. >>now it's your turn. connect with "the war room" jennifer granholm. >>it's a call to arms. make your voice heard.

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♪ >> jennifer: you're back "the war room." i'm jennifer granholm. the election is only eight days away but with hurricane sandy winding its way up the east coast, president obama is focusing most of his attention on the federal response to the storm. mitt romney continues to do some campaigning. he held a townhall in ohio aboard his plane this afternoon.

i'm joined again by chris lehane, a democratic strategist, a crisis communications expert. we did talk a little bit about what a challenger should do in light of this. i'm actually -- i want to go back to something else we began to talk about, which is in 2000 when al gore won the popular vote, but apparently lost -- at least one supreme court justice, but the question was at what point do you give up the ship. >> uh-huh. >> jennifer: you were inside those conversations, and would you have advise if we come down to an election that is so close like that. >> yeah. to me one of the critical issues is we had to deal with this the morning of the election, right? which is a lot of people didn't realize that al gore actually had won the popular vote.

there was this impression that bush had actually won, when any fact gore had won the popular vote. and to me that was one of the lessons or takeaways is, the importance of immediately getting out there and framing what this is. the campaign should have stood up that night, that morning, and every someday, and spoken as louly as we could have. and we need a state-wide recount in florida. we decided to target three or four counties. and that's the right advise in a sen rate race, but in a race of this magnitude, the winner was going to be the person that got to the moral high ground. he won the popular vote.

let's do a whole recount of florida. and my counsel for anyone that ends up in this situation that the obama does, if this is one of those situations where it goes one way or another, it's pretty important to publicly define what this is and occupy the moral high ground with the basic message being the real winner should be the winner. >> jennifer: and do not give up one inch until it is clear. >> that's exactly right. >> jennifer: and if there is ambiguity, you better be out this fighting. >> right. in florida there was potential disfranchisement, with the latino voters, a this jewish posters in west palm.

the supreme court in my view voted like they were police force captains. >> jennifer: absolutely. now this time there is a whole push on the part of the obama campaign to get lawyers to key places. obviously florida is a target place, and i think there will be lawyers in all of these states. what is the role of those lawyers? >> the lawyers are there to make sure people potentially being denied the right to vote are allowed to vote. in 2000 the report of voter intimidation. it happened also potentially in ohio in 2011 -- things take place in these states where certain things are done to try to prevent people from voting. so the lawyers are there to help, so when people show up

they can actually vote. >> jennifer: lawyers are recruit recruited across the country to be stationed literally at the precinct. and they want to pair up -- we want to pair up but they have sent somebody there. we're going to send a lawyer there to make sure every citizen has access to the ballot box. >> absolutely. and democrats do better when more people vote. republicans have a theory that they do better when less people don't vote. so that's why having lawyers there is pretty important if you are a democrat. >> jennifer: all right. do you think the hurricane -- obviously we have talked about it on the presidential level. does it affect the senate races do you think? >> i don't think it has a direct impact other than in these

states where the hurricanes are takes place, freezing the raise. the raise for 24, 48 hours is effectively frozen. people who have tvs -- >> jennifer: as long as they have power. >> right. i remember being in new hampshire and the campaigns that had the most ad pop up moved ahead. >> jennifer: that's interesting, these are blue states so you might want to switch some of your advertising dollars. >> yeah. it's a potential. >> jennifer: if it is not a swing state, who knows. >> that's right. >> jennifer: chris lehane thank you so much. how optimistic are you for president obama winning this election, as optimistic as when i came in here a couple of days

ago predicting the giants would win the world series. [ laughter ] >> jennifer: i'm just waiting for next season when we can beat the yankees again. okay. up next, hurricane sandy has wreaked havoc up and down the east coast, the midwest may be next. >>"if you ever raise taxes on >>the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true!

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prayers there. the associated press have reported that two people have died from fallen trees in new jersey, others have died in maryland, pennsylvania and contracted contract bringing the total death to ten. nearly 13,000 flights are grounded. 4 million people are without power, 1 million of them are in new york. the nyu hospital is without power. emergency response teams are also unable to get to the coney island hospital in brooklyn. and in downtown manhattan workers were trapped inside a power station. subways with shut down from washington to boston. the new york subway could be out of service for a week. the storm has always flooded most of atlantic city sweeping away an entire section of the

city's famed board work. and shelters are open across the state. 100 national guard troops are on duty. in north carolina any u.s. coast guard as rescued 14 members of a crew forced to abandon ship off of the carolina coast. in tennessee they are expecting up to 10 inches of show. in chicago the national weather service has issued high wind and flood warnings for tuesday and wednesday. and in wisconsin residents along lake michigan have been advised to evacuation because the waves are expected to reach 14 to 18 feet. now here is what the presidential campaigns have on tap for tomorrow mitt romney has what his campaign is calling

a relief event, which is scheduled for tuesday morning in kettering, ohio. president obama is planning to be in washington, d.c. he has no public events listed on his schedule, but we'll be watching for trips to areas that have been hit. a reminder that somebody is always in our "war room." check us out online at current.com/thewarroom, that's also where you can link up to our twitter and facebook page. thank you so much for joining us here in "the war room" this evening. we'll be back here tomorrow night from 10:00 to 12:00 eastern for another two-hour edition of "the war room." again our hearts go out to